Current Policy

Note: “Sexual harassment” is listed as an example of harassment in the current code. “Sexual harassment” is being proposed as an example of “Sexual misconduct.”

Proposed Revision

Definitions include:

Consent: Consent is clear, knowing and voluntary. Consent is active, not passive. Silence, in and of itself, cannot be interpreted as consent. Consent can be given by words or actions, as long as those words or actions create mutually understandable clear permission regarding willingness to engage in (and the conditions of) sexual activity.

Force: Force is the use of physical violence and/or imposing on someone physically to gain sexual access. Force also includes threats, intimidation (implied threats) and coercion that overcome resistance or produce consent.

Coercion: Coercion is unreasonable pressure for sexual activity. Coercive behavior differs from seductive behavior based on the type of pressure someone uses to get consent from another. When someone makes clear to you that they do not want sex, that they want to stop, or that they do not want to go past a certain point of sexual interaction, continued pressure beyond that point can be coercive.

Sexual Contact: Sexual contact includes intentional contact with the breasts, buttock, groin, or genitals, or touching another with any of these body parts, or making another touch you or themselves with or on any of these body parts; any intentional bodily contact in a sexual manner, though not involving contact with/of/by breasts, buttocks, groin, genitals, mouth or other orifice.Sexual Intercourse: Sexual intercourse includes vaginal penetration by a penis, object, tongue or finger, anal penetration by a penis, object, tongue, or finger, and oral copulation (mouth to genital contact or genital to mouth contact), no matter how slight the penetration or contact.

Examples Include:

sexual harassment, defined as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature where:

submission to such conduct is made, either explicitly or implicitly, a term or condition of an individual's employment or eduction; or

submission to or rejection or such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment or academic decisions affecting that individual; or

such conduct has the purpose or necessary effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work or creating a hostile, intimidating or offensive working or learning environment; and

such conduct is known by the offender to be unwelcome, harmful or offensive; or

a person of average sensibilities would clearly understand the behavior or conduct is unwelcome, harmful or offensive.

repeated unwelcome advances, demeaning verbal behavior, or offensive physical contact which interferes with an individual's ability to work or study productively. (as further defined in BOR P04.02.022 and R04.02.022);

non-consensual sexual contact, defined as any intentional sexual touching, however slight, with any object, by a man or a woman upon a man or a woman, that is without consent and/or by force; or

non-consensual sexual intercourse, defined as any sexual intercourse however slight, with any object, by a man or woman upon a man or a woman, that is without consent and/or by force; or

sexual exploitation, defined as occasions where a student takes non-consensual or abusive sexual advantage of another for his/her own advantage or benefit, or to benefit or advantage anyone other than the one being exploited, and that behavior does not otherwise constitute one of other sexual misconduct offenses, including but not limited to:

invasion of sexual privacy, such as, prostituting another student, non-consensual video or audio-taping of sexual activity, going beyond the boundaries of consent (such as letting your friends hide in the closet to watch you having consensual sex), engaging in voyeurism; or

knowingly transmitting an STI or HIV to another student; or

exposing one’s genitals in non-consensual circumstances;

inducing another to expose their genitals;

sexually-based stalking and/or bullying may also

be forms of sexual exploitation

Note: As further defined in BOR P04.02.022 and R04.02.022

If you have feedback about the proposed revision, please contact a member of the Student Code of Conduct Review Team.